1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device, and a method of managing data, and more specifically, to an image forming device generating display data of scanned image, and a method of managing data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an image forming device called a combination machine includes a platform for operating many kinds of applications, and an API (Application Program Interface) of the platform has been published (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-269619). The platform controls the image forming device according to a request from the application via the API, and provides a resulting product to the application. According to the image forming device, efficiency of an application development can be increased because functions which are commonly implemented in the platform can be used via the API.
One of the products that result from a process performed by the platform according to the request from the application is scanned data (hereinafter called, scanned image). A device to be built into a main unit such as an image forming device has a severe limitation as to a resource such as a memory device as compared to a computer for regular use. Therefore, with respect to a product such as the scanned image, which requires a large amount of memory, it is ideal to manage a lifecycle at the platform to prevent a shortage of the resource (storage capacity) due to an accumulation of unnecessary scanned images.
However, there are a number of purposes of the scanned images according to the functions of the applications. It is very difficult to manage the lifecycle at the platform. In other words, when the lifecycle is managed at the platform, utility of the platform is undermined, so that the functions that the application can provide are limited. Therefore, the scanned images are normally managed by the application.
The applicant has been attempting to implement a function of generating a display image in the platform. Here, the display image is generated as a display image data for an operation panel in the image forming device in order for a user to confirm a state of the scanned image. By implementing the function of generating the display image in the platform, each of the applications can easily provide a preview function of the scanned image.
The product of the function of generating the display image is, of course, a display image. Here, in view of the utility of the platform, it would be appropriate to manage the display image by the application.
On the other hand, use of the display image is very limited to displaying on the operation panel as opposed to the scanned image. Therefore, if a proper system can be developed, it is possible to somewhat manage the lifecycle of the display image at the platform.
In view of such problems, an objective of the present invention is to provide an image forming device properly managing the image data for displaying the scanned image data, and to provide a method of managing the data.